After his father acknowledged the strange hermit's identity, Boruto became even more curious. However, out of the three Legendary Sanin, he had only ever met one, namely Tsunade.
Boruto had heard that Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sanin, also frequently interacted with Konoha.
Now the legendary character served as the leader of Otogakure Village.
Coincidentally, this Valley of the End was the border of the Country of Fire and the Country of Sound. Otogakure could be called the main military village of the Country of Sound.
Nonetheless, Otogakure's situation was a bit special. The Daimyo of the Country of Sound weren't their main affiliate, but rather Konohagakure.
The main reason was that Orochimaru was a former great criminal. However, during the 4th Shinobi World War, this fellow's contribution was enough to erase the past mistakes.
As a result, an agreement was made by the leaders of the Shinobi Alliance who were the 5 Kage. The deal allowed Orochimaru to live freely but under Konoha's strict supervision.
Why only Konoha? Because Orochimaru was from there. Konoha inevitably had to assume the responsibility of supervising this time bomb.
If this bomb exploded, then Konoha would be the first victim.
However, that possibility would be very small as long as Konoha's two strongest people, Naruto and Sasuke, were still breathing.
The only thing that could subdue Orochimaru was real strength, not kindness that had no practical value.
Even though Orochimaru's character now seemed stable compared to the past, who knew what was truly in his heart?
"Is Jiraiya's Sanin stronger than the 5th Hokage and Orochimaru's Sanin?" Boruto asked curiously.
Naruto smiled at that. "It depends on your definition of strength. If by strength you mean the will to protect others, then he is the strongest among the three Legendary Sanin.
However, if you mean strength is a way to destroy others, he is not on par with Orochimaru."
Boruto frowned, dissatisfied with that answer. "Why do you beat around the bush? You know what I mean is their level of combat power. Who is the greatest of the three Sanins?"
"Then father will also ask you. Out of the seven Hokage, who is the strongest in battle?" Naruto asked calmly.
"Hump, father wants me to compliment your prowess?" Boruto snorted coldly.
Naruto shook his head. "No. Father meant that one's strength is not eternal. Twenty years ago, father was not even as powerful as any Chunin. But now, a Chunin of that era who had even become a Jounin would not be equal to father.
So do the Legendary Kage and Sanin. If they were all still alive and still developing themselves, I believe it wouldn't be easy to determine who was the strongest.
The only way to prove it is to fight head on. Unfortunately, such an opportunity is difficult to realize unless humans can live forever."
Boruto was on the verge of contemplation. He seemed to catch his father's intention and would be able to enter a state of enlightenment. However, there seemed to be a barrier preventing him from attaining that enlightenment.
Boruto just shook his head in denial.
"Live forever? A very beautiful concept to be realized."
Naruto smiled faintly. "Yes, it's so beautiful that father also doesn't know whether that step can really be taken?"
Boruto was a little weird with his father's rhetorical question. However, those thoughts disappeared in an instant when he returned to his food.
The next morning.
"Kagebunshin!" Boruto shouted.
Two clones were formed.
Why wasn't there a third clone? Because one clone was still seriously studying Naruto's Kagebunshin version.
This clone had not been eliminated since yesterday in order to speed up comprehension.
There was one thing that Boruto didn't like. It turned out that clones could accumulate mental fatigue. Supposedly, Boruto eliminated this clone and made a new one, or he told this clone to sleep to rest his mind.
Unfortunately, he wanted to experiment further.
Boruto didn't know what effect it would have if this clone disappeared and their minds merged.
Maybe he would be tired too?
Even though Boruto had made one of his clones 'torture himself' dozens of times, the mental fatigue he received was insignificant because the pain his clones suffered was of a physical origin.
But what if it's a mental wound? Would the effect be different?
This experiment would give him an idea if one day his clone was hit by an opponent's genjutsu.
After all, genjutsu attacked mentally, not physically.
If it turned out that the mentally exhausted clone was bad for the real body, then Boruto had a new path of training.
Like how to physically torture a clone to gain tolerance for the side effects of using his eye, Boruto also wanted to torture his clone mentally to gain tolerance for genjutsu.
Even so, all this was still just a hypothesis. To prove it, Boruto still needed field tests in the future.
After seeing one clone went for daily 'torture', Boruto looked at the last clone to quickly spar.
Boruto instructed.
"The rules are like yesterday."
The understanding clone nodded and immediately made a combination of hand seals.
"Electric Fingers!"
Boruto said, "Oh, it was serious from the start. Alright, me too... Electric Fingers!"
Their hands were both electrified with low voltage. This Electric Fingers Ninjutsu was the 6th Hokage's personal creation. It was said that this jutsu was a lesser derivative of the Chidori jutsu.
Electric Fingers didn't have as much damage as Chidori, and were even weak enough to cause fatal wounds. However, the chakra required to use it was very low. Moreover, the accuracy and control of this jutsu were easier to master.
For Boruto right now, the mentality he had was on the practicality of the jutsu, not the strength or weakness of the jutsu. As long as the jutsu suited his fighting style, then he would be happy to learn it.
If Kagebunshin didn't feel suit, Boruto won't even hesitate to leave this jutsu practice, even though it was categorized as forbidden jutsu.
Fortunately, Kagebunshin was perfect for him.
Boruto and the clones attacked each other with their palms. They did their best not to let their opponent hit any part of their body other than their palms.
When the two palms collided, a faint buzzing sound of an electric field could be heard.
This awareness made their movements more careful. Even though the Electric Fingers won't cause fatal injuries, when the muscles were hit by this jutsu, a feeling of stiffness and tingling would spread.
That slight moment would cause the target's reaction to slow down and in the end the winner and loser would almost be confirmed by the next attack.
Boruto suddenly sprayed water like a shockwave. This wasn't a jutsu, just precise power control to trick the opponent.
Sure enough, the clone's view was covered in soaring water. Even though the water was clear, the distortion of light made the refraction of the shadows of objects behind the water very faint.
The clone didn't think too hard and rushed to the water to reach Boruto. When the clone thought the punch had reached Boruto's chest, it turned out that there was no feeling of touching anything.
The water curtain descended, and only the clone was above the river. The clone was startled and suddenly his gaze looked down.
The clone shouted in shock, "Not good!"
Unfortunately, the sense of danger came too late. The clone's legs were held by Boruto's hands.
Not only that, after Boruto touched the clone's leg, he again channeled his Electric Fingers.
The clone felt the lower part of his body stiffen, he also lost the chakra control to stay above the surface of the water. The clone drowned and was immediately beaten by Boruto.
The clone that had lost its posture couldn't parry properly so a powerful kick was aimed straight at his chin.
Poof!
The clone disappeared after spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Boruto stepped out of the water. His hands rested on the surface of the water as if it was a solid object.
Boruto gasped slightly and said, "The bunshin initiative isn't as good as mine. While I should be relieved to always be one step ahead, I'm not sure if this can be called 'self-defeating'?"
Then, Boruto looked at the clone who was still concentrating on the stone.
"No wonder that clone hasn't been able to achieve anything. It's likely that the comprehension ability of the clone won't be as strong as mine either.
They were able to get my memories and my fighting abilities. But for things that are intuitive, they are sorely lacking."
After a bit of analysis, Boruto continued today's training cycle.
Evening arrived.
Boruto had spared and defeated his clones 12 times.
One clone that was always torturing himself had also died nearly 50 times.
If only Boruto wasn't preoccupied with fighting, he might be able to make that special clone's death double.
Boruto remained fair to his rival and didn't use the excuse 'I want to make clones' to suddenly stop.
He only took advantage of the small moments of various combat situations to create a new clone and send the clone away.
Then, Boruto looked back at the 'useless' clone in the distance.
Boruto decided to eliminate the clone. Even in his prime, the clone was incapable of understanding Naruto's Kagebunshin version, let alone in his current state of mental exhaustion.
It was better for him to create a new clone or understand its contents himself.
Poof!
The useless clone disappeared, but it seemed Boruto miscalculated. The physical fatigue from a long day of training plus the mental fatigue from the disappearing clone mixed in.
This made Boruto weak and lost his control over the water.
He fell and sank slowly.
His mouth wanted to scream 'father', but unfortunately Boruto's entire face sank first.
Boruto felt so tired that he couldn't keep his eyes awake. He felt sleeping at this time would be a blessing in itself.
Boruto succumbed to the temptation and started to lose consciousness.
When almost his entire body was submerged, a mighty hand pulled him out.
The owner of the hand said, "Good job!"
Boruto, who was very tired, didn't care and started to fall asleep.